The perfect remodels comprise a number of necessities: a transformative earlier than and after, no scarcity of setbacks turned design epiphanies, and naturally, a narrative. It’s a story born via an intensive inventive course of—one which’s formed organically via intention and a collaborative method. For Harper Smith, an achieved vogue life-style photographer, and her husband, Midland guitarist Cameron Duddy, it was evident from the start of their Dripping Springs, Texas top-to-bottom rework: they wouldn’t be afraid to have a little bit enjoyable.
Alongside that, an entire dismissal of conference. (In any case, innovation solely occurs whenever you function outdoors the strains.) The couple labored with designer Amy Pigliacampo to carry their imaginative and prescient for the four-bedroom, three-bathroom undertaking to life. And relatively than conducting the primary assembly in-office or by way of Zoom, Amy packed up her truck and drove 17 hours solo to camp with Harper and Cameron of their Airstream. She displays on the journey, calling it “a crash course in all issues Harper.” The expertise helped Amy and Harper attain a shared design center floor—discovering widespread footing in every girl’s “undefinable inventive course of.”
Featured picture by Claire Schaper.
Tour Cameron Duddy and Harper Smith’s Dripping, Texas Residence
It’s proof that persistence and an unfettered embrace of creativity pays dividends. What’s extra, with a lot of their lives spent on the highway, Harper and Cameron naturally sought a rustic haven for his or her passions and pursuits outdoors of their skilled work. With that, the house is grounded by an evident worth of household. The couple has a younger son, Kitt Cassidy and an always-budding farm of canines, cats, pigs, chickens, donkeys, and extra. Ample area is devoted not solely to deal with the {couples}’ classic finds however to help their love of gathering and connection.
The lengthy eating desk shortly transforms right into a post-dinner card sport and the stand-up piano is the place of many an impromptu live performance. You step inside, and it’s instantly evident: inventive individuals stay right here. Considerate individuals stay right here. Individuals who each wish to make the world all of the extra lovely and vibrant—whereas additionally leaning into its simplicity. Let’s take a tour.
This undertaking was conceived with distinctive beginnings—tenting along with your purchasers of their Airstream, permitting you to realize a deep understanding of what they needed from their dwelling. How did attending to know your purchasers on such a private stage positively impression your course of and the ultimate end result?
I ask Amy this, deeply curious in regards to the extent to which this undertaking differed from different remodels she’s labored on previously. She displays on her and Harper’s mutual historical past—a background that reaches again to the previous decade when each ladies labored in vogue. They have been briefly launched, however as Amy notes “the universe clearly had plans for us, however we have been a little bit early.”
Quick ahead these ten-plus years to when Amy discovered herself highway tripping to Spherical Prime, Texas the place they kicked off the undertaking. “We principally had a sleepover that night time and talked about all of the issues.” (She provides as an apart, a want to repeat this with each consumer.) From the expertise, it was clear that “finally, we needed the identical issues out of the undertaking.”
What in regards to the property resonated with you? Contemplating that every thing within the dwelling was redone, the place did you see the potential within the area?
With Midwestern roots, Harper isn’t any stranger to a life on the farm. Having grown up in Iowa, area to roam and discover her passions took precedence. “The wraparound porch was main,” she says. Nostalgia—that inescapable sense—sealed it. “The circulation of the home jogged my memory of my childhood dwelling, with the hearth because the central pillar.”
And naturally, Harper loves a problem, notably within the type of a home undertaking. “This dwelling had simply sufficient to like with simply sufficient to repair.” An ideal steadiness of give and take.
Have been there components of the unique construct that you just needed to maintain? How did you weave in elements of the unique structure into the ultimate design?
Good bones give a designer loads to work with, providing the liberty to iterate whereas additionally offering a peek into a house’s previous. From creating such an intimate understanding of her purchasers’ wants, Amy knew that whereas the “virtually quintessential Texas farm home” format was a bonus, Harper and Cameron needed to seek out their private imaginative and prescient throughout the ultimate design. “The primary strains and form of the home stayed the identical,” notes Amy. “Along with main repairs and a main suite addition they have been in a position to make use of supplies that felt recent however nonetheless traditional.”
What have been a few of the main modifications you targeted on within the redesign?
Amy shares that the first focus centered on the house’s exterior, noting that it was in determined want of a refresh and a method to tie the addition into the unique dwelling. “Their builders, SRD, actually listened and collaborated. [They cleaned] up the strains, textures and drained supplies, unifying every thing with easy board and batten siding, a steel roof, and superb new home windows.”
However it took changing the home windows and including a brand new, customized entrance door that reworked the house “from drained to love new with out stripping away any of the character,” Amy observes. Aware of this push-pull stress inherent in any renovation—eager to honor the unique character whereas additionally giving the area a contemporary really feel—required a lot enter and leaning into totally different views. “Ultimately, everybody obtained it and made it occur,” says the designer.
What’s your thought of “farm life”? How did that impression what you needed from the house? How does it manifest within the ultimate undertaking?
As a metropolis lady myself, I ask Harper this with real curiosity. I wish to perceive how a quiet life—one which’s deeply linked to the character and animals that encompass and help it—informs not solely the design course of, however how one inhabits that area.
“If I might have put a ramp as much as each window to permit my animals to greet me every morning, I’d have,” she says, noting that “all rational individuals concerned within the undertaking” shut the thought down. However with an unfaltering conviction and maybe a tone of wistfulness, she clarifies: “Farm life to me is barely listening to the noises of your individual human and furry household. Every day chores devoted to taking good care of the animals, and the potential to boost and rescue extra.”
“We simply added a brand new buddy to the household (my Christmas current). Honey Bear, the Highlander cow. So I suppose the quick reply is that I can commerce within the finer items in life for soiled, noisy, loopy farm mates.”
There’s a deep sense of persona woven all through the house. From the pictures alone, it’s simple for somebody to construct an understanding of who lives there. How would you describe the expertise and feeling you have been seeking to create within the ultimate design?
Harper’s fast to slate herself and Cameron as “eclectic,” and I like her conviction when describing her final want for what the house can be. “I needed this place to be painfully private, i.e., not for everybody. We needed to take dangers and avoid protected.”
Her phrases apply in a much wider sense, talking to what one ought to really feel in any inventive endeavor when bumping up towards a real and genuine ultimate end result. “There have been occasions I assumed we went too far, which looking back I believe is what it is best to really feel when making a endlessly area.”
In the end, it was a daring and unabashed breaking down of boundaries that led Harper and Cameron to a house reflective of the place their lives have been and the way they want to orient themselves to the long run.
This space of Texas is understood for its beautiful panorama and delightful pure components. How did you search to combine the redesign into the encompassing surroundings?
Amy sums up this space of Texas in naming its definitive “magical” high quality. There’s romance alive in its lush, ample nature—an ideal place to play with the design of a house. “Harper and Cam’s private type had advanced, they usually each needed to include extra fashionable supplies in some actually enjoyable and shocking methods.”
As a result of the rework required a lot work, a stretched funds pressured the couple to get inventive. Amy cites a number of examples, together with calacatta viola marble, customized cabinetry, and plaster work—to not point out making their very own tile when what they needed was out of funds.
Amy embraced the couple’s need for a deeply private home. The house “is stuffed with so many home windows and light-weight”—to not point out an absence of neighbors due to the property’s 22 acres. As such, “there wasn’t actually a must deliberately combine the surface in.” And in that means, as she notes, it turned merely one other ingredient of the house.
With something we take from an thought to concrete actuality, it’s gratifying to see it evolve into one thing that expands previous the place you initially sought to land. It’s a simultaneous intentionality and openness to the method that leads you to someplace that feels so clearly and distinctly like dwelling.
